Fire above L.A. delivered both anguish and opportunity

Nancy Gjerset was finished sifting through the ashes for the day when the young woman stopped on Big Tujunga Canyon Road and offered a strange compliment.

“She said, ‘I hope you’ll forgive me, but this is absolutely stunning,’ ” Gjerset recalled.

That is hardly the way Gjerset looks at the ghostly, blackened trees around her and at the ghastly, charred foundation of her home of nearly 40 years that lies at her feet.

The house burned to the ground Aug. 29. It was one of about 90 dwellings destroyed by the Station fire, the massive wildfire that killed two county firefighters and burned 250 square miles of Angeles National Forest.

Gjerset listened earlier this month as Amy Blackman introduced herself as the manager of Ozomatli, a Los Angeles-based band known for its multicultural sound and multiethnic makeup.

Blackman explained that she was looking for a place to use as a backdrop for a cover photo for Ozomatli’s upcoming release, to be titled “Fire Away.” Angeles National Forest officials have closed burned portions of the forest to use by outsiders.

An Eagle Rock resident, Blackman is familiar with the forest. As a cyclist and triathlete, she has ridden many times through Big Tujunga Canyon and knew that scattered parcels inside it have remained privately owned.

She listened quietly as Gjerset, 61, told how she and her 81-year-old husband, Ron, had waited in vain for firefighters to come and help them save their 4,000-square-foot home, vehicles and horse trailers and their stable for eight horses.

Now living in a Burbank hotel, the couple have begun clearing away fire debris and preparing to rebuild. As each layer of ash and twisted metal and stucco is pulled away, they carefully watch for chunks of pottery, bits of jewelry and any other piece of their lives that may have survived.

Blackman explained that for 14 years Ozomatli has been known as a socially oriented band that is rooted in Los Angeles political activism. She said the goal of the band’s photo would be to show something positive.

“We’re going to try to show rebirth and regeneration, not destruction,” Blackman said.

Nancy Gjerset said yes to the photo shoot. She didn’t even ask to be paid for use of the property.

When the band and its small entourage showed up in the canyon at noontime a few days later, the Gjersets had swept the soot from a surviving patio slab and rented a long table and folding chairs. They arranged paper plates and plastic dinnerware atop a mountain-green tablecloth.

“We’re a little short of amenities here,” Nancy apologized to the musicians, who arrived carrying bags of takeout food. “We just want people to feel welcome at our home.”

After lunch, photographer Christian Lantry posed band members on a pile of debris. As pictures were taken, the Gjersets watched from the other side of their burned-out home and spoke of what happened Aug. 29.

Bounded on three sides by paved streets -- Big Tujunga Canyon, Ottie and Stoneyvale roads -- their $1.2-million home was easily defendable from flames, they contended.

The couple had a 12,500-gallon water tank equipped with a gasoline-powered pump and hoses that were ready for use. They had another portable pump and hose for use in drawing water out of the nearby canyon stream if needed.

About 150 feet from their home’s front gate was a fire hydrant connected to a nearby 55,000-gallon Forest Service water tank for use by firetrucks.

On the day of the fire, authorities informed them and their neighbors that the flames were about eight hours away. So the Gjersets arranged for two men to come and handle the pumps and hoses, and for carriers to evacuate the horses that Nancy raises.

But the fire arrived sooner than expected. Forest Service workers stopped to tell the Gjersets to evacuate. They opened Nancy’s corral and freed her horses and unhooked the couples’ cat cages. Then they ordered Ron to abandon the oxygen tank he uses for a respiratory problem, calling it “too volatile” to risk carrying.

Firefighters and sheriff’s deputies pulled out of the canyon and authorities blockaded Big Tujunga Canyon Road at a bridge about a mile west of the Gjersets’ house. The helpers and horse trailers that were headed their way were not allowed through.

It took three hours for the couple’s sturdily built home to burn down.

They watched helplessly from their car parked 200 feet away.

“Nobody came. For 39 years I’ve watched the L.A. County Fire Department drive by three or four times a week. Yet they didn’t show for this fire,” said Ron, a retired aerospace engineer.

More than 50 other homes in the canyon were also destroyed Aug. 29. A week later at an emotional meeting with residents, Deputy Fire Chief John Tripp explained that the terrain was too dangerous to make a stand in Big Tujunga Canyon. Officials had no choice but to order fire crews out, he said.

But a television news crew showed up at the Gjerset property. “I had to watch my house burn down over and over and over on CNN,” Nancy said. “The press was here. But it was ‘too dangerous’ for the Fire Department to come in.”

As Lantry moved his lights and camera equipment down the hill to shoot in the remains of the stable, where one horse burned to death when it ran back inside, band leader and bass player Wil-Dog Abers chatted quietly with Ron.

Trumpeter, piano player and singer Asdru Sierra took Ron aside to explain how he had faced his own kind of trial by fire when five family members died during a short time span.

“You show how to cope with loss. You’re my hero,” he told the white-haired man.

Sax and clarinet player Ulises Bella gazed at the only thing still standing at the house -- a chimney built with rocks gathered from the stream bed four decades ago by Ron Gjerset.

“This gives me a sense of humility and thankfulness for what I have,” Bella said.

It was then that a stranger walked in from the canyon road and sought out Nancy Gjerset.

It was movie studio location scout Jenna Thornsberry. She asked Nancy if a film crew and special effects technicians could use the property for an upcoming shoot. It would be a teaser for a planned production called “Fireline Malibu” that is being produced through Universal Studios with the cooperation of the county Fire Department, she said.

“There will be some smoke and some flames, but they will only be about 3 feet high,” Thornsberry promised.

An incredulous Gjerset said nothing for a few moments. Then she consented. “It’s all I can do to say yes after all we’ve been through,” she told Thornsberry.

Replied the location scout: “I asked for a miracle this morning, and here you are.”

As Ozomatli’s photo shoot ended, the Gjersets mulled over the studio’s planned filming. “If the word gets out in the canyon, 50 people will storm them with pitchforks. It will be like a Frankenstein movie,” Nancy said.

“It’s kind of strange that firemen would want to come to a house they let burn down,” said her husband.

Back at their hotel, the couple talked further about the studio request. They telephoned one of the producers the next morning for more information and were told details of the scene to be filmed at their place.

“They wanted the firefighters running out of my burned-out barn as if they had just put out the fire and saved the day. No way would we be any part of that. It wouldn’t be ethical,” Nancy said. “It was a test of our moral character,” she added.

So the couple withdrew their invitation. Just to keep things positive.

bob.pool@latimes.com